Villanova advances to Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament with 89-69 victory over UCLA

Howard Smith/US PresswireUCLA forward Alfred Aboya passes the ball while defended by Villanova forward Shane Clark during the second half.

PHILADELPHIA -- Leading up to Saturday's game against UCLA at the Wachovia Center, Villanova coach Jay Wright said he expected it be an ugly affair.

It was -- for UCLA.

"We haven't really played 40 minutes," Wright said after the game. "We've had games where we've had leads. We kind of get lackadaisical. I just wanted them to understand how important of a game this is. And they played 40 minutes. Look what the results can be, how good they can be. That was really it."

Boy, was it ever.

Villanova's 89-69 rout of the sixth-seeded Bruins was a game that was never in doubt -- even in the first half. UCLA looked confused throughout the entire game. It was that bad for UCLA, which was just fine for Villanova. The third-seeded Wildcats are headed to Boston for the Sweet 16 of the East Regional.

In front of the university's legendary nine-man "Iron Men" team that lost to UCLA in the 1971 national championship game, as well as former coach Rollie Massimino, who guided the Wildcats to the 1985 title, this Villanova team played a near perfect game.

The Wildcats hit outside shots -- they had eight 3-pointers.

They grabbed offensive rebounds -- 16 of them.

They forced turnovers -- UCLA had 20.

"They played great, we didn't," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "A lot of the fact that we did not play well had to do with them and their ability on both ends of the floor, rebounding the ball. They had us down -- I think it was eight on the boards in the first half. ... So they got a lot of second shots back when they did miss."

Villanova came out firing on all cylinders and never let up. The Wildcats' attack was relentless, which resulted in six players scoring in double-figures.

When Villanova was up double-digits in the first half and Wright took point guard Scottie Reynolds out of the game for a breather, former St. Patrick star Corey Fisher came in and knocked down big shots. Early in the second half, with Villanova expanding its lead, Fisher drove the baseline and got a floater to drop and was fouled by Bruins forward Nikola Dragovic. After Fisher made the foul shot, Villanova led 57-35.

"You know, honestly, Corey does that every day," said Wildcats forward Dante Cunningham, who 18 points and 10 rebounds. "It was just another (shot) for him really. I mean, it was big in the game. Looked like (Dragovic) was just going to block it. But he does that every single day -- on me, on everyone on our team."

Fisher finished with 13 points off the bench. Along with 12 points off the bench from former St. Benedict's star Corey Stokes, Villanova was sitting pretty.

But this was a game Villanova won early, thanks to its physical defense. UCLA picked up 21 fouls with forwards Josh Shipp and Dragovic collecting four each. At times, UCLA guard Darren Collison was petitioning the officials to crack down on the physical nature of the game.

"I was just talking to the official because I thought they were fouling a little bit too hard," said Collison, who had 15 points. "Maybe I was getting frustrated or not. But we got to be able to bounce back from that. How we see they're playing, we got to be able to match their intensity and match their physicality. It was too late for that."

Villanova will play the winner of Saturday night's Texas-Duke game on Thursday in Boston, as the Wildcats head to their fourth Sweet 16 in five years.

"As a coach, if you tell the players it's a 40-minute game, you better be coaching for 40 minutes and you better be walking the walk," Wright said. "And we had to do that. We have to set the example. It's just true. We knew they're a very good team. They've won a lot of games. We know they're going to come hard.

"We had to make sure we were prepared for how they were going to come at us. We knew they were going to shoot more 3s (and) they were going to pressure us at some point. It's like at halftime in the American game (on Thursday), you're down 10, but it's the same thing. You still got 20 minutes and you've got to play 40 minutes."